Do you suspect your MP — now back in the riding for the summer break — has been cheating on his expense claims?

According to a recent Harris-Decima poll, an astonishing 89 per cent of British Columbians, higher than the national average, believe it’s “very or somewhat likely” their political representative has had a hand in the cookie jar.

Such public cynicism is not surprising given tales of corruption in Montreal municipal circles and spending scandals in the Canadian Senate.

Politicians increasingly will be pressured to prove their honesty rather than merely profess it, and to post clear, comprehensive accounts of their on-the-job spending for full public scrutiny.

Few may realize it, but the expense reports of MPs and Senators are already accessible online. The problem is that dollar figures are presented as lump sums, with few details provided.

Moreover, Parliament needs to standardize expense reporting to allow for easy comparisons of spending by MPs and Senators.

The Commons, reacting last month to a motion by B.C. MP Peter Julian, has agreed to hold public hearings on the matter.

The Burnaby-New Westminster MP’s motion called for an independent body to be established by next spring to review MPs’ expenses.

Liberals, for their part, have said they’ll voluntarily begin posting online details of their spending by next fall.

MPs obviously recognize the public has no more patience for closed-door spending reviews or politicians who would dare balk, as they have in the past, at the prospect of an Auditor-General’s audit.

“Auditors-General across Canada should have been auditing all these people for decades,” says Tyler Sommers, coordinator of the Ottawa-based public advocacy group Democracy Watch.

A look at online spending reports of four randomly chosen B.C. MPs from different parties reveals claims under the following categories: employee salaries, travel, hospitality, advertising, printing, and office operations.

Such costs, of course, are in addition to the MP’s base annual salary of $160,000 and taxpayer-subsidized pensions.

The four MPs — the NDP’s Nathan Cullen, Conservative Kerry-Lynne Findlay, Liberal Joyce Murray and the Greens’ Elizabeth May — each spent several hundred thousand dollars between 2011 and 2012.

May took it upon herself in June to issue a news release about her 2012-2013 personal expenses.

She claimed $18,600 in rent for a secondary residence in Ottawa but chose not to claim for allowable phone, cable and utility costs for that residence.

May reports, she claimed $834 to cover travel within her riding — a fraction of the true cost. And her per diems in Ottawa totalled $4,249, a small portion of the $11,000 maximum allowable.

She also pointed out, she flies economy class to and from Ottawa rather than business class, as B.C. MPs are entitled to do.

May’s example demonstrates, and it’s worth remembering, that not all politicians are out to game the system.

Canadian Taxpayers Federation president Troy Lanigan in June presented a 2013 TaxFighter Award in Calgary, heaping praise on three retired federal politicians from Alberta, Preston Manning, Werner Schmidt and Lee Morrison.

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